@article{AllanBossdorfDormannetal.2014, author = {Allan, Eric and Bossdorf, Oliver and Dormann, Carsten F. and Prati, Daniel and Gossner, Martin M. and Tscharntke, Teja and Bl{\"u}thgen, Nico and Bellach, Michaela and Birkhofer, Klaus and Boch, Steffen and B{\"o}hm, Stefan and B{\"o}rschig, Carmen and Chatzinotas, Antonis and Christ, Sabina and Daniel, Rolf and Diek{\"o}tter, Tim and Fischer, Christiane and Friedl, Thomas and Glaser, Karin and Hallmann, Christine and Hodac, Ladislav and H{\"o}lzel, Norbert and Jung, Kirsten and Klein, Alexandra Maria and Klaus, Valentin H. and Kleinebecker, Till and Krauss, Jochen and Lange, Markus and Morris, E. Kathryn and M{\"u}ller, J{\"o}rg and Nacke, Heiko and Pasalic, Esther and Rillig, Matthias C. and Rothenwoehrer, Christoph and Schally, Peter and Scherber, Christoph and Schulze, Waltraud X. and Socher, Stephanie A. and Steckel, Juliane and Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf and T{\"u}rke, Manfred and Weiner, Christiane N. and Werner, Michael and Westphal, Catrin and Wolters, Volkmar and Wubet, Tesfaye and Gockel, Sonja and Gorke, Martin and Hemp, Andreas and Renner, Swen C. and Sch{\"o}ning, Ingo and Pfeiffer, Simone and K{\"o}nig-Ries, Birgitta and Buscot, Francois and Linsenmair, Karl Eduard and Schulze, Ernst-Detlef and Weisser, Wolfgang W. and Fischer, Markus}, title = {Interannual variation in land-use intensity enhances grassland multidiversity}, series = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America}, volume = {111}, journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America}, number = {1}, publisher = {National Acad. of Sciences}, address = {Washington}, issn = {0027-8424}, doi = {10.1073/pnas.1312213111}, pages = {308 -- 313}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Although temporal heterogeneity is a well-accepted driver of biodiversity, effects of interannual variation in land-use intensity (LUI) have not been addressed yet. Additionally, responses to land use can differ greatly among different organisms; therefore, overall effects of land-use on total local biodiversity are hardly known. To test for effects of LUI (quantified as the combined intensity of fertilization, grazing, and mowing) and interannual variation in LUI (SD in LUI across time), we introduce a unique measure of whole-ecosystem biodiversity, multidiversity. This synthesizes individual diversity measures across up to 49 taxonomic groups of plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria from 150 grasslands. Multidiversity declined with increasing LUI among grasslands, particularly for rarer species and aboveground organisms, whereas common species and belowground groups were less sensitive. However, a high level of interannual variation in LUI increased overall multidiversity at low LUI and was even more beneficial for rarer species because it slowed the rate at which the multidiversity of rare species declined with increasing LUI. In more intensively managed grasslands, the diversity of rarer species was, on average, 18\% of the maximum diversity across all grasslands when LUI was static over time but increased to 31\% of the maximum when LUI changed maximally over time. In addition to decreasing overall LUI, we suggest varying LUI across years as a complementary strategy to promote biodiversity conservation.}, language = {en} } @article{AllanManningAltetal.2015, author = {Allan, Eric and Manning, Pete and Alt, Fabian and Binkenstein, Julia and Blaser, Stefan and Bl{\"u}thgen, Nico and B{\"o}hm, Stefan and Grassein, Fabrice and H{\"o}lzel, Norbert and Klaus, Valentin H. and Kleinebecker, Till and Morris, E. Kathryn and Oelmann, Yvonne and Prati, Daniel and Renner, Swen C. and Rillig, Matthias C. and Schaefer, Martin and Schloter, Michael and Schmitt, Barbara and Sch{\"o}ning, Ingo and Schrumpf, Marion and Solly, Emily and Sorkau, Elisabeth and Steckel, Juliane and Steffen-Dewenter, Ingolf and Stempfhuber, Barbara and Tschapka, Marco and Weiner, Christiane N. and Weisser, Wolfgang W. and Werner, Michael and Westphal, Catrin and Wilcke, Wolfgang and Fischer, Markus}, title = {Land use intensification alters ecosystem multifunctionality via loss of biodiversity and changes to functional composition}, series = {Ecology letters}, volume = {18}, journal = {Ecology letters}, number = {8}, publisher = {Wiley-Blackwell}, address = {Hoboken}, issn = {1461-023X}, doi = {10.1111/ele.12469}, pages = {834 -- 843}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Global change, especially land-use intensification, affects human well-being by impacting the delivery of multiple ecosystem services (multifunctionality). However, whether biodiversity loss is a major component of global change effects on multifunctionality in real-world ecosystems, as in experimental ones, remains unclear. Therefore, we assessed biodiversity, functional composition and 14 ecosystem services on 150 agricultural grasslands differing in land-use intensity. We also introduce five multifunctionality measures in which ecosystem services were weighted according to realistic land-use objectives. We found that indirect land-use effects, i.e. those mediated by biodiversity loss and by changes to functional composition, were as strong as direct effects on average. Their strength varied with land-use objectives and regional context. Biodiversity loss explained indirect effects in a region of intermediate productivity and was most damaging when land-use objectives favoured supporting and cultural services. In contrast, functional composition shifts, towards fast-growing plant species, strongly increased provisioning services in more inherently unproductive grasslands.}, language = {en} } @article{BluethgenDormannPratietal.2012, author = {Bl{\"u}thgen, Nico and Dormann, Carsten F. and Prati, Daniel and Klaus, Valentin H. and Kleinebecker, Till and Hoelzel, Norbert and Alt, Fabian and Boch, Steffen and Gockel, Sonja and Hemp, Andreas and M{\"u}ller, J{\"o}rg and Nieschulze, Jens and Renner, Swen C. and Sch{\"o}ning, Ingo and Schumacher, Uta and Socher, Stephanie A. and Wells, Konstans and Birkhofer, Klaus and Buscot, Francois and Oelmann, Yvonne and Rothenw{\"o}hrer, Christoph and Scherber, Christoph and Tscharntke, Teja and Weiner, Christiane N. and Fischer, Markus and Kalko, Elisabeth K. V. and Linsenmair, Karl Eduard and Schulze, Ernst-Detlef and Weisser, Wolfgang W.}, title = {A quantitative index of land-use intensity in grasslands integrating mowing, grazing and fertilization}, series = {Basic and applied ecology : Journal of the Gesellschaft f{\"u}r {\"O}kologie}, volume = {13}, journal = {Basic and applied ecology : Journal of the Gesellschaft f{\"u}r {\"O}kologie}, number = {3}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Jena}, issn = {1439-1791}, doi = {10.1016/j.baae.2012.04.001}, pages = {207 -- 220}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Land use is increasingly recognized as a major driver of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in many current research projects. In grasslands, land use is often classified by categorical descriptors such as pastures versus meadows or fertilized versus unfertilized sites. However, to account for the quantitative variation of multiple land-use types in heterogeneous landscapes, a quantitative, continuous index of land-use intensity (LUI) is desirable. Here we define such a compound, additive LUI index for managed grasslands including meadows and pastures. The LUI index summarizes the standardized intensity of three components of land use, namely fertilization, mowing, and livestock grazing at each site. We examined the performance of the LUI index to predict selected response variables on up to 150 grassland sites in the Biodiversity Exploratories in three regions in Germany(Alb, Hainich, Schorlheide). We tested the average Ellenberg nitrogen indicator values of the plant community, nitrogen and phosphorus concentration in the aboveground plant biomass, plant-available phosphorus concentration in the top soil, and soil C/N ratio, and the first principle component of these five response variables. The LUI index significantly predicted the principal component of all five response variables, as well as some of the individual responses. Moreover, vascular plant diversity decreased significantly with LUI in two regions (Alb and Hainich). Inter-annual changes in management practice were pronounced from 2006 to 2008, particularly due to variation in grazing intensity. This rendered the selection of the appropriate reference year(s) an important decision for analyses of land-use effects, whereas details in the standardization of the index were of minor importance. We also tested several alternative calculations of a LUI index, but all are strongly linearly correlated to the proposed index. The proposed LUI index reduces the complexity of agricultural practices to a single dimension and may serve as a baseline to test how different groups of organisms and processes respond to land use. In combination with more detailed analyses, this index may help to unravel whether and how land-use intensities, associated disturbance levels or other local or regional influences drive ecological processes.}, language = {en} } @article{BuschKlausPenoneetal.2017, author = {Busch, Verena and Klaus, Valentin H. and Penone, Caterina and Sch{\"a}fer, Deborah and Boch, Steffen and Prati, Daniel and M{\"u}ller, J{\"o}rg and Socher, Stephanie A. and Niinemets, {\"U}lo and Penuelas, Josep and H{\"o}lzel, Norbert and Fischer, Markus and Kleinebecker, Till}, title = {Nutrient stoichiometry and land use rather than species richness determine plant functional diversity}, series = {Ecology and evolution}, volume = {8}, journal = {Ecology and evolution}, number = {1}, publisher = {Wiley}, address = {Hoboken}, issn = {2045-7758}, doi = {10.1002/ece3.3609}, pages = {601 -- 616}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Plant functional traits reflect individual and community ecological strategies. They allow the detection of directional changes in community dynamics and ecosystemic processes, being an additional tool to assess biodiversity than species richness. Analysis of functional patterns in plant communities provides mechanistic insight into biodiversity alterations due to anthropogenic activity. Although studies have consi-dered of either anthropogenic management or nutrient availability on functional traits in temperate grasslands, studies combining effects of both drivers are scarce. Here, we assessed the impacts of management intensity (fertilization, mowing, grazing), nutrient stoichiometry (C, N, P, K), and vegetation composition on community-weighted means (CWMs) and functional diversity (Rao's Q) from seven plant traits in 150 grasslands in three regions in Germany, using data of 6 years. Land use and nutrient stoichiometry accounted for larger proportions of model variance of CWM and Rao's Q than species richness and productivity. Grazing affected all analyzed trait groups; fertilization and mowing only impacted generative traits. Grazing was clearly associated with nutrient retention strategies, that is, investing in durable structures and production of fewer, less variable seed. Phenological variability was increased. Fertilization and mowing decreased seed number/mass variability, indicating competition-related effects. Impacts of nutrient stoichiometry on trait syndromes varied. Nutrient limitation (large N:P, C:N ratios) promoted species with conservative strategies, that is, investment in durable plant structures rather than fast growth, fewer seed, and delayed flowering onset. In contrast to seed mass, leaf-economics variability was reduced under P shortage. Species diversity was positively associated with the variability of generative traits. Synthesis. Here, land use, nutrient availability, species richness, and plant functional strategies have been shown to interact complexly, driving community composition, and vegetation responses to management intensity. We suggest that deeper understanding of underlying mechanisms shaping community assembly and biodiversity will require analyzing all these parameters.}, language = {en} } @article{KlausHoelzelBochetal.2013, author = {Klaus, Valentin H. and H{\"o}lzel, Norbert and Boch, Steffen and M{\"u}ller, Jorg and Socher, Stephanie A. and Prati, Daniel and Fischer, Markus and Kleinebecker, Till}, title = {Direct and indirect associations between plant species richness and productivity in grasslands regional differences preclude simple generalization of productivity-biodiversity relationships}, series = {Preslia : the journal of the Czech Botanical Society}, volume = {85}, journal = {Preslia : the journal of the Czech Botanical Society}, number = {2}, publisher = {Czech Botanical Soc.}, address = {Praha}, issn = {0032-7786}, pages = {97 -- 112}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Plant species richness of permanent grasslands has often been found to be significantly associated with productivity. Concentrations of nutrients in biomass can give further insight into these productivity-plant species richness relationships, e.g. by reflecting land use or soil characteristics. However, the consistency of such relationships across different regions has rarely been taken into account, which might significantly compromise our potential for generalization. We recorded plant species richness and measured above-ground biomass and concentrations of nutrients in biomass in 295 grasslands in three regions in Germany that differ in soil and climatic conditions. Structural equation modelling revealed that nutrient concentrations were mostly indirectly associated with plant species richness via biomass production. However, negative associations between the concentrations of different nutrients and biomass and plant species richness differed considerably among regions. While in two regions, more than 40\% of the variation in plant species richness could be attributed to variation in biomass, K, P. and to some degree also N concentrations, in the third region only 15\% of the variation could be explained in this way. Generally, highest plant species richness was recorded in grasslands where N and P were co-limiting plant growth, in contrast to N or K (co-) limitation. But again, this pattern was not recorded in the third region. While for two regions land-use intensity and especially the application of fertilizers are suggested to be the main drivers causing the observed negative associations with productivity, in the third region the little variance accounted for, low species richness and weak relationships implied that former intensive grassland management, ongoing mineralization of peat and fluctuating water levels in fen grasslands have overruled effects of current land-use intensity and productivity. Finally, we conclude that regional replication is of major importance for studies seeking general insights into productivity-diversity relationships.}, language = {en} } @article{KlausKleinebeckerBochetal.2012, author = {Klaus, Valentin H. and Kleinebecker, Till and Boch, Steffen and M{\"u}ller, J{\"o}rg and Socher, Stephanie A. and Prati, Daniel and Fischer, Markus and Hoelzel, Norbert}, title = {NIRS meets Ellenberg's indicator values prediction of moisture and nitrogen values of agricultural grassland vegetation by means of near-infrared spectral characteristics}, series = {Ecological indicators : integrating monitoring, assessment and management}, volume = {14}, journal = {Ecological indicators : integrating monitoring, assessment and management}, number = {1}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {1470-160X}, doi = {10.1016/j.ecolind.2011.07.016}, pages = {82 -- 86}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Ellenberg indicator values are widely used ecological tools to elucidate relationships between vegetation and environment in ecological research and environmental planning. However, they are mainly deduced from expert knowledge on plant species and are thus subject of ongoing discussion. We researched if Ellenberg indicator values can be directly extracted from the vegetation biomass itself. Mean Ellenberg "moisture" (mF) and "nitrogen" (mN) values of 141 grassland plots were related to nutrient concentrations, fibre fractions and spectral information of the aboveground biomass. We developed calibration models for the prediction of mF and mN using spectral characteristics of biomass samples with near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS). Prediction goodness was evaluated with internal cross-validations and with an external validation data set. NIRS could accurately predict Ellenberg mN, and with less accuracy Ellenberg mF. Predictions were not more precise for cover-weighted Ellenberg values compared with un-weighted values. Both Ellenberg mN and mF showed significant and strong correlations with some of the nutrient and fibre concentrations in the biomass. Against expectations, Ellenberg mN was more closely related to phosphorus than to nitrogen concentrations, suggesting that this value rather indicates productivity than solely nitrogen. To our knowledge we showed for the first time that mean Ellenberg indicator values could be directly predicted from the aboveground biomass, which underlines the usefulness of the NIRS technology for ecological studies, especially in grasslands ecosystems.}, language = {en} } @article{KlausKleinebeckerHoelzeletal.2011, author = {Klaus, Valentin H. and Kleinebecker, Till and Hoelzel, Norbert and Bluethgen, Nico and Boch, Steffen and M{\"u}ller, J{\"o}rg and Socher, Stephanie A. and Prati, Daniel and Fischer, Markus}, title = {Nutrient concentrations and fibre contents of plant community biomass reflect species richness patterns along a broad range of land-use intensities among agricultural grasslands}, series = {Perspectives in plant ecology, evolution and systematics}, volume = {13}, journal = {Perspectives in plant ecology, evolution and systematics}, number = {4}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Jena}, issn = {1433-8319}, doi = {10.1016/j.ppees.2011.07.001}, pages = {287 -- 295}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Understanding changes in biodiversity in agricultural landscapes in relation to land-use type and intensity is a major issue in current ecological research. In this context nutrient enrichment has been identified as a key mechanism inducing species loss in Central European grassland ecosystems. At the same time, insights into the linkage between agricultural land use and plant nutrient status are largely missing. So far, studies on the relationship between chemical composition of plant community biomass and biodiversity have mainly been restricted to wetlands and all these studies neglected the effects of land use. Therefore, we analyzed aboveground biomass of 145 grassland plots covering a gradient of land-use intensities in three regions across Germany. In particular, we explored relationships between vascular plant species richness and nutrient concentrations as well as fibre contents (neutral and acid detergent fibre and lignin) in the aboveground community biomass. We found the concentrations of several nutrients in the biomass to be closely linked to plant species richness and land use. Whereas phosphorus concentrations increased with land-use intensity and decreased with plant species richness, nitrogen and potassium concentrations showed less clear patterns. Fibre fractions were negatively related to nutrient concentrations in biomass, but hardly to land-use measures and species richness. Only high lignin contents were positively associated with species richness of grasslands. The N:P ratio was strongly positively related to species richness and even more so to the number of endangered plant species, indicating a higher persistence of endangered species under P (co-)limited conditions. Therefore, we stress the importance of low P supply for species-rich grasslands and suggest the N:P ratio in community biomass to be a useful proxy of the conservation value of agriculturally used grasslands.}, language = {en} } @article{KlausKleinebeckerPratietal.2013, author = {Klaus, Valentin H. and Kleinebecker, Till and Prati, Daniel and Gossner, Martin M. and Alt, Fabian and Boch, Steffen and Gockel, Sonja and Hemp, Andreas and Lange, Markus and M{\"u}ller, J{\"o}rg and Oelmann, Yvonne and Pasalic, Esther and Renner, Swen C. and Socher, Stephanie A. and T{\"u}rke, Manfred and Weisser, Wolfgang W. and Fischer, Markus and H{\"o}lzel, Norbert}, title = {Does organic grassland farming benefit plant and arthropod diversity at the expense of yield and soil fertility?}, series = {Agriculture, ecosystems \& environment : an international journal for scientific research on the relationship of agriculture and food production to the biosphere}, volume = {177}, journal = {Agriculture, ecosystems \& environment : an international journal for scientific research on the relationship of agriculture and food production to the biosphere}, number = {3}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0167-8809}, doi = {10.1016/j.agee.2013.05.019}, pages = {1 -- 9}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Organic management is one of the most popular strategies to reduce negative environmental impacts of intensive agriculture. However, little is known about benefits for biodiversity and potential worsening of yield under organic grasslands management across different grassland types, i.e. meadow, pasture and mown pasture. Therefore, we studied the diversity of vascular plants and foliage-living arthropods (Coleoptera, Araneae, Heteroptera, Auchenorrhyncha), yield, fodder quality, soil phosphorus concentrations and land-use intensity of organic and conventional grasslands across three study regions in Germany. Furthermore, all variables were related to the time since conversion to organic management in order to assess temporal developments reaching up to 18 years. Arthropod diversity was significantly higher under organic than conventional management, although this was not the case for Araneae, Heteroptera and Auchenorrhyncha when analyzed separately. On the contrary, arthropod abundance, vascular plant diversity and also yield and fodder quality did not considerably differ between organic and conventional grasslands. Analyses did not reveal differences in the effect of organic management among grassland types. None of the recorded abiotic and biotic parameters showed a significant trend with time since transition to organic management, except soil organic phosphorus concentrations which decreased with time. This implies that permanent grasslands respond slower and probably weaker to organic management than crop fields do. However, as land-use intensity and inorganic soil phosphorus concentrations were significantly lower in organic grasslands, overcoming seed and dispersal limitation by re-introducing plant species might be needed to exploit the full ecological potential of organic grassland management. We conclude that although organic management did not automatically increase the diversity of all studied taxa, it is a reasonable and useful way to support agro-biodiversity.}, language = {en} } @article{ManningGossnerBossdorfetal.2015, author = {Manning, Pete and Gossner, Martin M. and Bossdorf, Oliver and Allan, Eric and Zhang, Yuan-Ye and Prati, Daniel and Bl{\"u}thgen, Nico and Boch, Steffen and B{\"o}hm, Stefan and B{\"o}rschig, Carmen and H{\"o}lzel, Norbert and Jung, Kirsten and Klaus, Valentin H. and Klein, Alexandra Maria and Kleinebecker, Till and Krauss, Jochen and Lange, Markus and M{\"u}ller, J{\"o}rg and Pasalic, Esther and Socher, Stephanie A. and Tschapka, Marco and T{\"u}rke, Manfred and Weiner, Christiane and Werner, Michael and Gockel, Sonja and Hemp, Andreas and Renner, Swen C. and Wells, Konstans and Buscot, Francois and Kalko, Elisabeth K. V. and Linsenmair, Karl Eduard and Weisser, Wolfgang W. and Fischer, Markus}, title = {Grassland management intensification weakens the associations among the diversities of multiple plant and animal taxa}, series = {Ecology : a publication of the Ecological Society of America}, volume = {96}, journal = {Ecology : a publication of the Ecological Society of America}, number = {6}, publisher = {Wiley}, address = {Washington}, issn = {0012-9658}, doi = {10.1890/14-1307.1}, pages = {1492 -- 1501}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Land-use intensification is a key driver of biodiversity change. However, little is known about how it alters relationships between the diversities of different taxonomic groups, which are often correlated due to shared environmental drivers and trophic interactions. Using data from 150 grassland sites, we examined how land-use intensification (increased fertilization, higher livestock densities, and increased mowing frequency) altered correlations between the species richness of 15 plant, invertebrate, and vertebrate taxa. We found that 54\% of pairwise correlations between taxonomic groups were significant and positive among all grasslands, while only one was negative. Higher land-use intensity substantially weakened these correlations(35\% decrease in rand 43\% fewer significant pairwise correlations at high intensity), a pattern which may emerge as a result of biodiversity declines and the breakdown of specialized relationships in these conditions. Nevertheless, some groups (Coleoptera, Heteroptera, Hymenoptera and Orthoptera) were consistently correlated with multidiversity, an aggregate measure of total biodiversity comprised of the standardized diversities of multiple taxa, at both high and lowland-use intensity. The form of intensification was also important; increased fertilization and mowing frequency typically weakened plant-plant and plant-primary consumer correlations, whereas grazing intensification did not. This may reflect decreased habitat heterogeneity under mowing and fertilization and increased habitat heterogeneity under grazing. While these results urge caution in using certain taxonomic groups to monitor impacts of agricultural management on biodiversity, they also suggest that the diversities of some groups are reasonably robust indicators of total biodiversity across a range of conditions.}, language = {en} } @article{MuellerHeinzeJoshietal.2014, author = {M{\"u}ller, J{\"o}rg and Heinze, Johannes and Joshi, Jasmin Radha and Boch, Steffen and Klaus, Valentin H. and Fischer, Markus and Prati, Daniel}, title = {Influence of experimental soil disturbances on the diversity of plants in agricultural grasslands}, series = {Journal of plant ecology}, volume = {7}, journal = {Journal of plant ecology}, number = {6}, publisher = {Oxford Univ. Press}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {1752-9921}, doi = {10.1093/jpe/rtt062}, pages = {509 -- 517}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Disturbance is supposed to play an important role for biodiversity and ecosystem stability as described by the intermediate disturbance hypothesis (IDH), which predicts highest species richness at intermediate levels of disturbances. In this study, we tested the effects of artificial soil disturbances on diversity of annual and perennial vascular plants and bryophytes in a field experiment in 86 agricultural grasslands differing in land use in two regions of Germany. On each grassland, we implemented four treatments: three treatments differing in application time of soil disturbances and one control. One year after experimental disturbance, we recorded vegetation and measured biomass productivity and bare ground. We analysed the disturbance response taking effects of region and land-use-accompanied disturbance regimes into account. Region and land-use type strongly determined plant species richness. Experimental disturbances had small positive effects on the species richness of annuals, but none on perennials or bryophytes. Bare ground was positively related to species richness of bryophytes. However, exceeding the creation of 12\% bare ground further disturbance had a detrimental effect on bryophyte species richness, which corresponds to the IDH. As biomass productivity was unaffected by disturbance our results indicate that the disturbance effect on species richness of annuals was not due to decreased overall productivity, but rather due to short-term lowered inter- and intraspecific competition at the newly created microsites. Generally, our results highlight the importance of soil disturbances for species richness of annual plants and bryophytes in agricultural grasslands. However, most grasslands were disturbed naturally or by land-use practices and our additional experimental soil disturbances only had a small short-term effect. Overall, total plant diversity in grasslands seemed to be more limited by the availability of propagules rather than by suitable microsites for germination. Thus, nature conservation efforts to increase grassland diversity should focus on overcoming propagule limitation, for instance by additional sowing of seeds, while the creation of additional open patches by disturbance might only be appropriate where natural disturbances are scarce.}, language = {en} }